Yesterday morning at church I walked home with a sweet surprise, a bundle of rhubarb!  A couple in our church generously brought in a mountain of rhubarb to share with anyone who wanted it.  It was surprising, because rhubarb season, for the most part, has been over for a while.  The variety this couple has though, is clearly hearty through the summer, and it has a delicious flavor! I grabbed a handful of it, knowing that as soon as I was home with it I’d be preparing it to make Rhubarb Crunch, a dessert from my new cookbook “From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens”.

I did just that.  But before I get to the part where I go on and on about how fantastic this crunch was, I have to share a few thoughts about it, because it didn’t come out quite right.   If you’ve ever made a crisp or a crumble, you would be familiar with the step where you add in your fat.  You combine flour, oats and whatnot, and then you cut in a stick of cold butter to get a nice crumbly mixture.  Well, this recipe was different in that it called for melted butter.  I figured I’d go along with it and give it a shot, but once I poured the butter in and started stirring it, it was clear that I was not going to have crumbs to work with.  It was more like a thick dough or batter.  I took about half of it and pressed it into my dish, and I wondered if I should pre-bake it for just a tad.  I didn’t, and in a few minutes I had a thick rhubarb syrup to pour on top of the base, followed by the rest of the dough.  I just picked up the dough in my hands and sort of sprinkled it over the top as best I could.  It looked okay, so I popped it in the oven, and was rewarded a few minutes later with the most tantalizing aroma! Oh, that crunch smelled fantastic the entire time it baked.

After it had cooled, I set to scooping some out and encountered a problem.  That base crust?  The bottom that seemed strange? Was totally stuck to my pan.  I used pyrex, so it takes a lot for something to stick! But stick it did, so I ended up pretty much scraping everything and leaving that bottom behind.  When I took a knife to it and pried a piece up,it was very chewy and not the most pleasant thing to eat.  But the rest of it! Oh my goodness, that rhubarb and crunch topping was fantastic! The rhubarb flavor was accented with the perfect amount of sweetness so it didn’t totally eliminate the tartness of the rhubarb.  It really is delicious with a scoop of whipped cream, or plain and unadorned with the morning coffee.

So what went wrong?  Gosh, it could be a few things.  First, the melting of the butter itself is suspect, I would try it next time with cold butter and cut it in.  I also didn’t spray my pan initially, as I figured with all the butter in the crumbs, I wouldn’t need it.   But honestly? I have to say that when I make this again, I want to try it with no bottom crust at all.  I want to make the rhubarb sauce, and pour it into the pan, and then top it with all the crumb mixture.  I think that would work the best, and would keep the crust from getting that unpleasant stick-to-your-teeth chewiness.  But here is the recipe as written.  Look it over, decide to play with it as you like.  At the end of the recipe there is a note that you can swap in other fruit as you like, so if rhubarb is all but a memory for you, grab some berries or some apple slices, I think any fruit would be delicious here. Oh, and yes, that is a 9 x 13 pan, I doubled the recipe, which filled the pan perfectly.

Rhubarb Crunch